I like the colors, and the contrast between the smooth shiney subjects and the rough background.

There's two things that leave it short of perfect. One is the shallow DOF, it leaves the tip of the standing bullet looking soft. That is somewhat anathema for bullets. The other is that most Western eyes read an image from left to right. If you reverse the image it might be slightly more powerful.

I shot this at f/8, at f/8 I basically had to decide which bullet to have in focus - no way to have both. I get what you're saying, and I agree. I didn't even try stopping down past f/8 (should have), I was afraid I would loose too much sharpness. I'll try it and see how it looks.[/EDIT]

I've been wanting to try that (for a lot of things), but haven't yet.
Can GIMP do the merging? I also have the trial version of Paint Shop Pro, I'll probably buy it soon though (I can't remember if there are certain tools that you can't use in the trial...).